What is the best way to learn the OS?

I'm a Windows engineer and we've seen the introduction of more and more Mac books in the environment. Along with that we tend to get more calls regarding the support of the OS.

I'm thinking about purchasing a PowerMac G4 to become more familiar with the operating system due to the reduced cost of the systems. I need to know if this is a good idea and would appreciate any guidance available.
Thanks

Hello and welcome to the forum! Now I'm not one of the hardware experts here but my first suggestion for learning the Mac OS X is to obtain a computer that is modern and running the most recent OS which is Mavericks (the next Mac OS is about to be released, i.e. Yosemite which will be OS 10.10.x).

The machine you are suggesting stopped being made in 2004 (quote from HERE) and used Apple's older processors; by around 2006 the company had switched to Intel-based CPUs. You really need to obtain a new or at least a recent used iMac or Macbook Pro that is running the most recent versions of Apple's OS - then suggestions can be made about learning the OS - Dave

The Power Mac G4 (originally Power Macintosh G4) is a series of personal computers that was designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple between 1999 and 2004. They used the PowerPC G4 (PPC74xx) series of microprocessors. They were heralded by Apple to be the first personal supercomputers, reaching speeds of 4 to 20 Gigaflops. They were both the last Macintoshes to boot natively into Classic Mac OS and the first to boot exclusively into Mac OS X.

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As RAdDave stated, you will only learn about OSX10.4, which is like learning XP then having to support Windows 7&8

It will certainly help but you would be better off with something like a 2009 MacBook, that can still run 10.9 Mavericks (and will run 10.10 Yosemite when it is released this year)

Apple MacBook 13 3" Laptop Late 2009 Unibody 2 26GHz 2GB Mavericks iLife iWork 885909345915 | eBay

Just to add to the already great advice already given. You certainly want to learn on hardware (MacBooks) and OS version (probably at least 10.6 and above) that the folks you support are using.

Powermac G4's and the OS version they can run are very old…and trying to learn on this setup may not be very helpful if you are supporting much newer hardware & OS versions.

- Nick

Look on G4 machines as Windows 95 models.

harryb2448 said:

Look on G4 machines as Windows 95 models.

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Guys - I was curious in my post - what does a Windows Engineer mean?

Also, I'm getting a feeling best described by a scene from the movie Willow - I'll reserve my judgment and will apologize but? Dave
.

Hmmm...??? The same thought crossed my mind when I peeked in on this thread.

Maybe it's a "fancied-up" title..."Windows IT Engineer"??

Just a guess.

- Nick

p.s. Can't be any worse than "Apple Genius"!

Putting aside the crazy notion of getting a G4 (short version, don't): there are a variety of ways that are "best" depending on the type of person you are. There's an excellent series of videos from Lynda.com for example, and less-excellent versions made by enthusiasts that are available on YouTube. Some people learn best from a "visual quickstart" type book, so take a stroll down to your local bookstore and see if that would be good for you.

Also good for most people is just "diving in," but with an important caveat: OS X is not Windows in the same sense that a Honda is not a Ferrari. Both are good, both will get you there, but there's a lot of difference in the details.

OS X, fwiw, isn't really as different from Windows as people think. It's much more beautifully designed and more deeply integrated with the hardware, no question about it, but it uses the same file/folder metaphor Windows does, and is structured quite similarly (though the navigation style is a bit different). For example, movies go in "Movies" instead of "My Movies."

Apple itself has a resource you may find useful: Switch 101. See what you think.

RadDave said:

Guys - I was curious in my post - what does a Windows Engineer mean?

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Someone who dangles from ropes on a platform on the side of a building while washing windows?

Or the guy who has been calling me and saying my Windows computer has been sending out bad files and viruses. He's not a bad guy, though. He has assured me he can fix it for me!

Dogbreath said:

Or the guy who has been calling me and saying my Windows computer has been sending out bad files and viruses. He's not a bad guy, though. He has assured me he can fix it for me!

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You mean you've been getting calls from Windows Technical center too?
Somehow I thought I was special - and my Mac was having many technical Windows errors.
I found it hard to believe my Mac was sending so many "Windows error mesages" to Microsoft.